Worth the wait
by afitwilight
Summary: Two CSIs have a day they soon won't forget. Response to a challenge. NS romance


Sara breezed down the halls of CSI heading toward the break room. She was in desperate need of a cup of Greg's famous coffee. She turned the corner and stepped in the break room. If she had been more wake, she would have noticed the person sitting on the couch. In fact, the only thing Sara noticed was the out of order sign on the coffee machine.  
  
"Great." Sara replied. "This is so not what I need right now."  
  
"Rough day?" The person on the couch asked.   
  
Sara turned around to comment but couldn't form a single word. In front of her sat Greg in a suit and tie. She reached up and rubbed her eyes thinking she must be seeing things. Greg never wore a suit and tie to work. He was still there and he had quite an amused look on his face.  
  
"Nice to see my outfit has an effect on you." He commented.  
  
"I, uh, I'm sorry. I'm not quite awake." She told him. "You look good though, what's the occasion?"  
  
"Oh, well I had a wonderful date before shift and I didn't have time to change clothes."  
  
"You dressed up for a date? That was nice of you." She replied and sat down on the couch beside him.  
  
"My date was pretty special and I wanted to take her somewhere nice."  
  
Sara smiled. She was about to comment but Nick walked in. "Hey guys." He greeted them and then noticed Greg's clothes. "Court date?"  
  
"Nope, just a regular date. You know those things where guys and girls or guys and guys, or even girls and girls go out and have fun." Greg smiled and added. "Oh wait, I forgot you haven't had one of those in a while."  
  
"Shut up Greg." Nick replied with a hint of a smile. "I just haven't found the right person yet." Nick glanced over at the coffee machine. "Great, it's busted."  
  
"You can fix it if you want to." Sara offered.  
  
"That machine is so old, it would be cheaper just to buy a new one." Nick headed toward the refrigerator and pulled out a vanilla coke. "Anyone want a soda?"  
  
"Sure." Sara responded. Nick reached in and grabbed another soda and shut the door. He walked over to the couch and handed her the coke. "Thanks." Sara said and opened her drink. Nick sat down beside her and flipped on the television. After channel surfing for a while they ended up watching Happy Hell Night.   
  
Greg's face lit up. "Hey, that girl looks like Sara."  
  
Sara stared at the actress on the screen. "No she doesn't."  
  
"Yes, she does. Okay, so maybe her hair is longer than yours but the two of you look exactly alike in the face."  
  
Nick kept glancing from the screen to Sara. "He's right. She does look like you, but if it makes you feel better, you're more beautiful than she is."  
  
Sara's face became red. "Um, thanks Nick."  
  
"Just telling the truth."   
  
Sara was about to reply when they all heard a horrible scream coming from down the hall. Nick, Sara, and Greg jumped off the couch and ran toward the noise. Running down the hall, they found Hodges standing on top of a table screaming loudly. Grissom, Catherine, and Lindsey were trying desperately to keep a straight face.   
  
Warrick came running in behind them. "What's going on? I heard this horrible scream."  
  
"Lindsey's ferret got away and ran in here." Catherine explained.   
  
Warrick burst out laughing and glanced over at Hodges. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a ferret."  
  
Hodges carefully got down of the table. "Of course not." He tried to defend himself. "I was just making sure I didn't step on it."  
  
"Yeah right."   
  
The ferret came out of its hiding place and headed toward Lindsey. She bent down and picked it up. "There you are Bobbi. I was worried sick." She petted Bobbi and turned toward the others. "Do you guys want to pet her?"  
  
"Sure." Sara walked over and took the ferret from Lindsey's hands. She scratched Bobbi's head. "She's so cute. When did you get her?"  
  
"Today. Uncle Grissom got her for me."  
  
"Wow. What made you get her a ferret?" Nick asked Grissom.  
  
"It was either that or a Great Dane and Catherine said no dogs."  
  
Catherine smiled. "When you said you wanted to get Lindsey a pet, I thought you meant like a fish or a cat. I didn't expect you to buy her a ferret."  
  
"But she's so cute." Lindsey replied and took Bobbi back from Sara. "See, she's got such a sweet face."   
  
"As much as I would love for us to continue hanging out in the lab, we do have work to do." Grissom said.  
  
Groans and moaning came from the group. Hodges, on the other hand, was more than happy for them to leave. "Don't forget to take that thing with you."   
  
"You're such a girl." Lindsey commented.  
  
"I am not."  
  
"Maybe not, but that scream was pretty much a girly scream." Nick replied.  
  
"Come on guys. We've got cases remember?" Grissom stated before the rest of the team had a chance to gang up on Hodges. They all left the lab, leaving a relieved Hodges alone.   
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~   
  
Shift was finally over and Grissom decided to take the night shift, including Lindsey, out for breakfast. They walked in the restaurant and found a table near the back. The waitress handed them their menus and took their drink orders. After she left, they glanced at the menu.   
  
"Mommy, I don't have to get cereal do I?" Lindsey asked.  
  
"No honey. You can get whatever you want." Catherine told her.  
  
"Good, cause I'm so tired of Froot Loops."  
  
Nick was sitting beside Sara. He was so close to her that he could smell her shampoo, which had a watermelon fragrance. He found himself becoming slightly nervous sitting beside her and he wasn't sure why.   
  
"Nick." Warrick said.  
  
Nick glanced over at his friend. "What?"  
  
"Man, you were zoning out there for a while. I called your name about five times."  
  
"Sorry. I guess I was thinking."  
  
"That's obvious. What were you thinking about?"  
  
Nick couldn't tell him the truth so he blurted out the first thing he could think of. "Tattoos."  
  
"Tattoos?" Warrick replied back in a tone that said he didn't believe a word Nick just said.  
  
"Yeah." Nick sat up a bit straighter. "I was, um, thinking of getting one."  
  
Sara turned to face him. "Really? What kind?"  
  
"Oh, well. I'm not sure yet."  
  
"You could get Sara's name tattooed on your arm Uncle Nick." Lindsey said.  
  
Nick's face became crimson. Sara didn't look comfortable either. The others, however, looked very amused. In fact, they were staring at Nick as if waiting for him to deny he had feelings for his co-worker.  
  
"I'm not getting Sara's name tattooed on my arm." He said.  
  
"Why not? You like her don't you?"  
  
"She's my friend Lindsey, of course I like her."  
  
"No, she's way more than a friend to you. Uncle Warrick told me so."  
  
Nick shot a look at Warrick. "Thanks a lot Uncle Warrick."  
  
"No problem." Warrick replied with a smile on his face.  
  
Sara was sitting beside Nick and becoming very uncomfortable. She wanted nothing more than to run as far away from them as she could. In fact, she was praying that the ground would open up and swallow her. She knew she had more than friendly feelings toward Nick, but she never expected him to feel the same way. Actually she didn't think he did feel the same way. "Um, hey guys. I just remembered I have to be somewhere." She replied.  
  
Grissom glanced over at her. "I think this conversation is over."  
  
"I really need to go." She turned to face Nick. "Could you move?"  
  
Nick nodded and stood up. Sara got up quickly and practically ran out of the restaurant. Nick really wanted to follow her but that would just fuel the gossip line even more.   
  
"Nick, are you okay?" Catherine asked with genuine concern.  
  
"Yeah, but I'm not sure Sara is."  
  
Lindsey glanced over at him. "I'm sorry Uncle Nick. I didn't mean to make you and Aunt Sara mad."  
  
"I'm not mad and I'm sure Sara's not mad either."  
  
"Okay, but will you go and check on her and make sure?"   
  
"I don't think Sara wants to see me right now." Nick replied.  
  
"Nick, did it ever occur to you that Sara might have feelings for you and that's the reason why she bolted like a bat out of hell." Warrick said.  
  
"Warrick's right." Greg said. "She really likes you Nick. Think about it. Who in this entire group can calm a down a pissed off Sara? Whom does Sara talk to when she has a problem?"  
  
Grissom nodded. "Listen Nick, Sara isn't very trusting with people, especially now, but she still trusts you. I know this because she used to talk to me, but she doesn't anymore."  
  
"All right. I'll go talk to her." Nick got up and told them bye.   
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~   
  
Sara was crashed on her couch flipping through her television. She was desperately trying to find something to take her mind off what happened at the restaurant. She passed through commercials about contact lenses, cotton candy makers, and Barney toys. Nothing seemed to help her forget about Nick. A knock at her door got her attention. She stood up and walked toward the door. She glanced through the peephole and saw Nick standing there. She opened the door and smiled.  
  
"Hey."   
  
"Hey Sara." Nick looked nervous and Sara couldn't help but smile.  
  
"Come on in." She stepped aside and Nick walked toward her couch. She closed the door and followed him.  
  
"Sara. I'm really sorry about what happened." Nick replied.  
  
"It's okay. I guess the Grissom and Catherine gossip got old."   
  
"Yeah, but those rumors were really fun to listen to. Especially the one where Catherine used baby wipes as a form of clothes to model for Grissom."  
  
Sara laughed. "I have no idea who thought of that one."  
  
"Someone who has way too much time on his or her hands."  
  
Sara sat down on the couch and motioned for Nick to sit down as well. "Nick, I just wanted to say sorry for bailing on you earlier."  
  
"That's okay. I was dying to run away too, you just beat me to it."  
  
Sara bit her lower lip. "What did they say after I left?"  
  
"Lindsey said she was sorry for making us mad."  
  
"I wasn't mad. I just didn't want to embarrass you."  
  
Nick stared at her. "How would you have embarrassed me?"  
  
"Well, I didn't want you to feel like you needed to defend our friendship by getting a tattoo. Plus, I didn't want you to realize that I had more than friendly feelings for you."  
  
Nick smiled. "What are you trying to say Sara? That you love me?"  
  
Sara felt she said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know that you and I are just friends and that you would never."  
  
She wasn't able to finish because Nick's lips descended on hers. She was shocked at first. She couldn't believe that Nick was actually kissing her. She quickly got over her shock and responded back. She wrapped her arms around his waist pulling him closer to her. After a few intense moments, they pulled apart.   
  
"That was definitely worth the wait." Nick replied.  
  
"How long exactly have you been waiting for that?" Sara asked.  
  
"Since I met you."  
  
Sara smiled. "Me too." She closed the distance between them and kissed him again. They pulled apart and smiled at each other.   
  
"So, I was thinking, you want go out sometime and try that date thing Greg was talking about earlier?" Nick asked.  
  
"Sounds good." She smiled. "Are you going to get my name tattooed on your arm?"  
  
"Why would I want a name when I have the real thing in front of me?"  
  
"Good point." They shared another kiss and then cuddled against each other on the couch, slowly drifting off into a deep sleep.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ The End ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 


End file.
